In the clearest public signal yet that the government wants a hi-tech farming revolution, Professor John Beddington will say UK scientists need to urgently d evelop “a new and greener revolution” to increase food production in a world changed by global warming and expected to have an extra 3 billion people to feed by 2040.

“Techniques and technologies from many disciplines, ranging from biotechnology and engineering to newer fields such as nanotechnology, will be needed,” writes Beddington in a paper, seen by the Guardian, to accompany his speech to the Oxford farming conference.